Tag Archives: Karen Kingsbury

The Professor and I have been discussing Christmas hoopla, so I decided to read a few Yuletide titles.

First up, Hundred Dollar Holiday by Bill McKibben (here) disappointed. His spirituality was wishy-washy, and his focus was almost entirely on feel-good traditions and making family memories. There is nothing wrong with time with family—it’s wonderful, in fact—but in my mind, Christmas should be about Christ above anything else.

Next, I read Gideon’s Gift by Karen Kingsbury (here). The story was sweet, and though the ending is given away in the prologue (it opens with a young woman being walked down the aisle by her father while an older man looks on proudly—and then the story flashes back fifteen or so years), I cried. But though the main character finds God, the name of Jesus is never spoken, diluting the message almost to the point of secularism. In all honesty, the rest of the story touched me more than the man’s conversion, and that’s a shame.

Finally, I checked out The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean (here), since the Professor and I decided to put Jesse tree ornaments on our tree and read corresponding passages this year. The prose was beautiful and inviting, but I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the way certain things were portrayed, so we’re going to stick with just the Bible—because you don’t need anything else, anyway.

{But there’s a lovely devotional available here; for simplicity’s sake, we have omitted it and just used the ornament printables and Bible passage suggestions, but that won’t keep me from recommending it.}

So, not a lot of cheer from my Christmas reading, but it’s just another reminder that I would rather focus on Easter—the Resurrection, redemption, the coming of the Kingdom. I guess my Resurrection-themed reading should start sooner than my Christmas search…

Thoreau went to the woods to suck the marrow out of life; here, I hope to drain every drop from the books I read, rather than tossing them aside and saying vaguely, “Oh yes, I read that once,” when they come up in conversation.
I’m a Christ-follower, a wife, a mother, a wannabe novelist (with a complete manuscript, no less!), and—of course—a reader. Stick around, poke around, speak up, and enjoy…and definitely recommend your favorites, because my mile-long to-be-read list could always be longer!